AL DIVISION SERIES: YANKEES VS BLUE JAYS

October 8, 2025

Aaron Boone

Yankee Stadium

New York Yankees

Postgame 4 Press Conference

Blue Jays - 5, Yankees - 2

Q. You had made the comment before the postseason started that you thought this was the most talented roster you have ever had here as the manager. Ultimately, why do you think you guys weren't able to get it done this postseason?

AARON BOONE: The ending's the worst, right? Especially when you know you have a really good group and a group of guys that really came together so well at the right time, the final couple months. This was a team. It's a team that played for one another, did a lot of really good things, and we got beat here.

Credit to the Blue Jays and the year they've had. They beat us this series, simple as that. It doesn't make it any easier. It's a beat-up room in there. They're still sharing with one another. I felt like I should come out and owe you guys this, but know that the guys are in there still sharing with one another because they truly became a really close, close team and a really good team.

The awful part of this is the journey that you go on that -- and this has been a tough year for me personally. But all you go through to kind of become this kind of team you think can really do something special, and for it to abruptly end is always difficult.

It's a beautiful game that so many of us -- and you guys here, certainly within our organization, every organization, you pour so much into to go on this long journey to have a chance to chase a dream and win a championship. And when it ends this way, it's always -- you know, it's terrible. It hurts.

But I know for me personally, I know for a lot of those guys, it also continues to ignite your fire to want to get back and play in these meaningful games and have a chance at glory.

Thank you guys that cover us all the time and are here. Again, I want to congratulate the Blue Jays and their organization. They've had a terrific year and built an outstanding team. Credit to John and those guys. They took it to us this series.

Q. You look at tonight in particular, the offense did have quite a few opportunities to get that big hit. What was their staff doing that just did not allow you guys to come through in those situations?

AARON BOONE: Any time you're in a bullpen game, obviously it doesn't always work, but it can be really effective. Usually you build the lineup to go face their starting pitcher. They're bringing in people to face your lineup.

So you're getting guys, and they have obviously a number of talented guys, that pitched effectively and were able to hold us down enough. When we did have some opportunities, were able to thwart it enough. Just obviously not our night.

Q. What was your view on the Jazz ball where he kicked it off his glove?

AARON BOONE: Just ball hit sharply, but one he's going to turn all the time.

Q. Just coming off of last night, the emotion from yesterday, did you feel some kind of carryover for this team? Do you think that they might have been, I don't know, coming out a little bit flat considering how heavy things were yesterday?

AARON BOONE: No, I felt kind of the opposite. But you don't win games on emotion all the time. It's about execution, and they were better than us tonight and in this series.

Q. Two things if possible. You described this as an awful year for me. Why?

AARON BOONE: Did I say awful year for me? Tough year, hard year.

Just a hard year. There were just some tough moments, but also like in a lot of ways very rewarding to go through some of the moments we went through in the middle of the season especially.

To see this kind of team come together in a really special way. That is a tight knit -- and I feel like we got so much better in the final couple months of the season. So it was more a very tough year on me, that's all. And it's not about me, but that's all I was saying. But also very rewarding to go through and see what these guys became.

Q. The other thing is you have had to kind of give a version of this press conference a lot during your time here. Does your belief system that things will change take a dent at all and that you guys will eventually break through this?

AARON BOONE: No, I'm confident we'll break through, and I have been every year, and I believe in so many of the people in that room. That hasn't changed. The fire hasn't changed. It's hard to win the World Series. Been chasing it all my life.

Q. What do you say to Aaron after a year like this where he has one of the great offensive seasons in baseball history, is always optimistic the team will get there, yet in the end, just keeps coming up as a team without the title?

AARON BOONE: That's sports. It doesn't mean it's not going to happen, and he and I wholeheartedly believe that it will. Again, you keep working your tail off to get back to this position and punch through.

Q. Do you find it at some level hard to believe with ten years of the type of numbers he's putting up that the breakthrough hasn't happened?

AARON BOONE: I don't know. Again, I don't take anything for granted in this game. Being in it my whole life, I know how hard it is to win in the end. I have too much respect for the sport and the competition of it for that.

Q. Trent and Cody were huge for you all year. They're obviously free agents now. I understand the season just ended, but what is your hopes for what happens with them and the organization in the off-season?

AARON BOONE: I don't know. That's for another day. The thing I'll say about them is they're a big reason why I was so excited about this club down the stretch and at this point. Just really proud of who those guys were and are and what they became as players, as driving forces for our team.

But in those two cases, the two people those guys are in the room every single day and what they brought to the table as teammates every single day, I appreciate that. And I'm grateful to get to have managed those two guys. Who knows? Hopefully in both cases, I get to keep doing it.

Q. What did you think of Schlittler tonight? And maybe more big picture, how can this postseason run be foundational going into next year with him?

AARON BOONE: I thought Schlit was good tonight. Didn't have the dominant swing and miss stuff. I thought pitched really effectively, was filling up the strike zone. I thought he made a lot of key pitches when he needed to, mixed well. Gives up a run in the first inning but doesn't flinch. I thought he was really efficient with obviously a good offensive club.

I thought he threw the ball really well tonight. Not the dominant one that he came off of, but he gave us a really good chance to win a baseball game.

Then as far as foundationally, obviously I think we all understand how excited we are about Cam and his future and what he could become in our rotation moving forward. He had a phenomenal season and finished strong tonight.

Q. Just defensively, what do you think sort of plagued you guys this year?

AARON BOONE: I think that's part of what I've been talking about the last couple months. I think at this point we're a really good defensive team and became that. But we had to go through some tough moments in the middle of the season, but came out of it and became a really good and well-rounded club. That's why this hurts in the end.

Q. Aaron, you saw last year firsthand what it took to win the World Series because you were in it. How much is what you're feeling now connected to the fact that you didn't get a chance to get back and apply those lessons in the World Series?

AARON BOONE: Yeah, I mean, maybe. Maybe in some way that's part of it. Another part of it, again, is what I feel about this group, where we're at as a club, and just what I believe was a realistic shot to get back there and win this thing.

Again, as much as any team I felt like that I've had to this point, I felt like this was a group that could make a real run at it, especially being as healthy as we were at this time of the year.

Q. What did you feel was the biggest difference as to why the Blue Jays were able to win the series?

AARON BOONE: Look, obviously they were able in the first few games to get to our starters and put up a lot of runs against us. We didn't hold them down well enough in the first few games. Cam goes out and throws really well tonight, and they're able to add a couple across there late.

But we didn't control them offensively enough to win big in this series.

Q. What did you see on the Chisholm error play from your vantage point?

AARON BOONE: Just missed -- it just kicked off. Sharply hit ball, but a one-hopper, one he's going to turn all the time. And it just looked like it skipped off his glove.

Q. You said earlier it's sports. I imagine that's in some ways alluding to the randomness of it in some ways and the way the season is a roulette wheel. How do you wrangle with that, that it is such a small sample when you're -- whether or not the best team always wins, you're presented with a very small amount of games in order to win.

AARON BOONE: That's part of the beauty of it. I mean, that's the competition of it. That's the high-stakes nature of. That why playoff baseball is awesome.

Even these other games that you're kind of watching and paying attention to, like the importance and the intensity of every single pitch is just, it's awesome, and it's what I think a lot of us sign up for and play for. So that's just part of it. It doesn't mean it's always kind.

Q. I'm sorry, but it becomes a subject every year. Do you have any reason to think you won't be back managing the team next year?

AARON BOONE: No. I'm under contract, so I don't expect anything.